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The Aldrich is one of the few independent, non-collecting contemporary art museums in the United States, and the only museum in Connecticut devoted to contemporary art. Founded on Ridgefield’s historic Main Street in 1964, the Museum concentrates its exhibition program on solo exhibitions by emerging and mid-career artists.

Collecting from the darkest depths of the ocean, beneath layered bedrock, or from the farthest reaches of space, the American Museum of Natural History catalogues, studies, and shares the latest knowledge about the natural world. The Museum's famed permanent halls explore an array of topics, from human ancestry throughout the ages to deep history of lands ruled by dinosaurs. The Museum?s far-reaching educational programs extend beyond the permanent exhibits and the confines of the building, reaching into middle and high schools to fund and conduct hands-on, student-driven experiments. The Museum also supports scientific expeditions around the world, providing archeologists and paleontologists with essential supplies and Indiana Jones Halloween masks.
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Six Overlooked But Awesome Exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History
You?ve seen the dinosaurs, but what about the dragons? Or the sapphire that was stolen in a 1960s jewel heist?

From a stone mosaic that lined the floors of a 5th-century synagogue to the final rhyme spit out by a Jewish hip-hop artist, the span of the Jewish Museum's collections is as diverse as it is expansive. What began in 1904 with 26 artifacts has blossomed into a collection of 27,000 paintings, sculptures, and multimedia exhibits that together present a collage of art and Jewish culture from across centuries and continents.
The centerpiece of the Museum is Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey, a permanent exhibition teeming with artifacts, videos, and art that collectively celebrate Jewish identity and the culture's ability to persevere through sometimes tragic circumstances. Artists?from 20th century French master ?douard Vuillard to contemporary American painter Kehinde Wiley?enliven the galleries in rotating exhibitions.
Interactive exhibits such as the Archaeology Zone bring kids within earshot of ancient times as they don ancient costumes and weigh, magnify, and analyze vessels just like anthropologists or careful ancient housewares shoppers. Family activities include holiday-themed art classes and workshops, and The Wind Up series invites adults into the Museum for an after-hours menagerie of cutting-edge music, film, and theatre. After a day of soaking up history, attendees can nosh at Lox at Caf? Weissman, a certified-kosher caf? whose stained glass windows shed light on the edible portion of the Jewish journey.

In the 19th century, the Tenderloin district of New York City lured visitors with bordellos, dance halls, and saloons. These days, the area houses the Museum of Sex, which explores the historical and cultural significance of the types of human sexuality considered taboo in the Tenderloin era. The more than 15,000 sexual artifacts in the museum's permanent collection include vintage vibrators, period photography, and copies of Playboy's predecessor, Philandering Archduke. Rotating exhibitions also delve into current sexual scholarship; past exhibits have explored the history of condoms, sexuality in 1930s comics, and Japanese erotic art.
After exploring the museum's galleries, visitors can reenergize with a bite or a drink from the museum's in-house bar, which blends traditional aphrodisiacs into cocktails. Suggestively named naughty sex kits are also available in the museum's store, alongside artwork and contraceptives.

Located along the Museum Mile section of Fifth Avenue, the Museum of the City of New York chronicles local culture through an array of exhibitions, interactive programs, publications, and other media. Founded in 1923 and housed in a landmark building, the nonprofit museum hosts temporary exhibitions to complement extensive permanent collections. Hallways and gallery spaces invite guests inside to study historic maps, photographs of life and architecture, and artwork, as well as vintage displays gathering toys, fashion, and furniture?providing more insight into the city's rich character than the diary of Al Pacino. Docents and visiting artists aim to highlight the city's diversity and heritage through public programs and events, such as gallery tours and performances as well as symposiums and panels. A gift shop allows visitors to bring home a taste of the Big Apple via city-spirited books, clothing, posters, music, films, and handmade goods.

Ground Zero Museum Workshop founder and official photographer at Ground Zero for the Uniformed Firefighters Association, Gary Marlon Suson aims to lend education and comfort to locals and visitors with a photo exhibition documenting nearly nine months of the Ground Zero Recovery. As various artifacts culled from the site's rubble complement an image collection lauded by the New York Times, the space stands as a permanent museum detailing the buildings, victims, heroes, and aftermath of the tragedy. To further its cause, Ground Zero Museum Workshop shares raised funds and proceeds to benefit three special charities relating to the 9/11 attacks. The Museum was also named by TripAdvisor as one of the top 25 museums in the USA.

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Rockaway! is a summer-long art exhibit celebrating the reopening of Fort Tilden, which was closed for two years after damage from Hurricane Sandy. Put on through a collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art’s contemporary museum, PS1, and local artist and community groups, the show’s big draw is a large exhibit by musician, writer, artist, and Rockaway resident Patti Smith. But there’s a lot more to explore there, especially when combined with a beach day. Follow our guide to navigating the historic site and the accompanying exhibit, whose works center around the connection between place, objects, and memory.
The Chapel
Walk into Fort Tilden, and the first exhibit area you’ll see is an old white building—the restored Fort Tilden chapel. Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Piece Motet takes over the bare and musty space with 40 speakers, each of which amplifies the voice of one singer performing their part of a complicated 16th-century choral piece. Walking among the speakers offers endless ways to hear the song; it felt personal and almost wrong to be walking among them, like sidling up to a chorister in the middle of a performance. The surround-sound effect feels even more intense when you look out the windows toward the peaceful beach. At the chapel, grab a brochure (with a handy map inside) and rely on volunteers to direct you to the other exhibits.
Rockaway Artists Alliance Gallery
A few hundred feet to the west, you can see what looks like an abandoned factory overgrown with scrubby trees. This houses the next exhibit, which you enter by going through the Rockaway Artists Alliance Gallery. The community nonprofit group’s gallery hosts Patti Smith’s photographs, which are a lifelong catalog of the objects and places dear to her: ex-lover and close friend Robert Mapplethorpe’s grave, Frida Kahlo’s corset, her own work boots.
The photos are all shot on film in black and white, adding a layer of ghostliness to the surviving objects of dead people. Smith isn’t the best photographer, but it’s interesting to see a curated selection of a woman who seems to have traveled everywhere. Try to nab one of the scarce gallery guides at the front desk because, like the entire Rockaway! exhibit, signage is rare here but would be useful.
(Skip the attached exhibit honoring Walt Whitman, which is stingy: a few unexplained relics in a display box, a dozen tattered copies of his books, a forgettable movie. You probably remember more about him from high school than you’ll learn here.)
The Resilience of the Dreamer
Across a small garden path is an old auto garage housing Smith’s installation, The Resilience of the Dreamer. A gilded four-poster bed, draped with white linens hanging from the high ceilings and lit by punched-out skylights, looks like a dream or a ghost. It's also a reminder that, despite its upbeat exclamation point, all of Rockaway! sprang from the traumas of Hurricane Sandy. Smith based Resilience on beds she saw washed ashore after the disaster.
Around Fort Tilden
Sprinkled throughout the grounds, a careful eye will catch a few of the little birds’ nests created by Adrián Villar Rojas. The low, slouching bowls are very difficult to find, looking for all the world like real nests—a small offering of home for a community where many were left homeless just two years ago. Granite blocks Smith inscribed with fragments of poems by Whitman stand along the shore road of Fort Tilden, almost at the western edge and close to the beach. We recommend taking a break in the sand before heading back to the bus stop and jumping on the Q22 bus, which will drop you off two blocks from the Rockaway Beach Surf Club.
Rockaway Beach Surf Club
The exhibit at the surf club features artwork by locals and notable artists, though no piece really stands out on its own. Granted, the large shack that makes up the surf club seems dim compared to the distracting, sun-drenched patio right outside. Grab a drink (cans of PBR are $3, a dark and stormy is $9) and take note of a few pieces of art before you run outside:
Above the ATM is Camille Henrot’s Tropics of Love, a grid of nine tawdry and tender portraits of half-animals, half-humans coupled up.
To the right of the bathrooms is Allyson Vieira’s Aphrodite I, a delicate ink drawing of an octopus that shows the artist’s very light and precise hand.
Tom Sachs’s Tides at Rockaway Beach is the largest piece on the wall to the left as you walk in. At first, Sachs’s work looks like a schedule of upcoming tides, but looking more closely, it’s clear this is actually a schedule of deaths, listing men’s and women’s life expectancy against their age today. In short, Sachs’s work tells you how much longer you’re statistically likely to live. The subject matter is creepy, even though its handmade, graffiti-esque aesthetic fits right in with this local bar.
Now, step out into the sun. Out back, surfers stash their boards in lockers, locals talk shop in flip-flops, and pilgrims from Manhattan let loose. A new Southern-style food truck sells meaty sandwiches (with one vegan option) and killer sweet-potato fries. Enjoy this last phase of your visit to the Rockaways—from there, it’s a half-block walk to the subway and back to reality.
Rockaway! at a Glance
When to go: Open and free to the public Thursday–Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. until September 1.
The Rockaway Beach Surf Club exhibit is also open to the public free of charge Monday–Friday from noon to midnight and Saturday–Sunday from 11 a.m. to midnight. The Forty Piece Motet by Janet Cardiff will only be open through Sunday, August 17.
How to get there: Take the 5 or 2 to the last stop in Brooklyn, Flatbush Ave./ Brooklyn College, and walk a block to the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue H, in front of Target. From there, catch the Q35 bus toward the Rockaways, getting off at the first stop after crossing the Marine Parkway Bridge.
What to bring: At Fort Tilden, water and food are scarce but surf and sand are plenty, so pack a towel, swimsuit, sunblock, water, and snacks.
Photos by Kasia Mychajlowycz.